Bottom-dump hopper



arch 28, 1950 E. w. SCHELLENTRAGER BOTTOM DUMP HOPPER Filed June 9; 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 March ,1950 E. w. SCHELLEN'IV'RAGER v 27,501,743

. BOTTOM DUMP HOPPER Filed June 9,1945 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 3 INVENTOR.

fuEA/E Ml SCHELLENTRHGEE closed. skip hoist of a blast furnace.

Finally, another object is to provide improved The drawings show a stationary installation, door operating mechanism includin counterl0 indicating a suitable support which here is a weight means effective upon both doors and with portion of the roof of a building in which the varying effects in dififerent door positions, all for hopp r i mo in h ma r h ir n pie the purpose of enabling the doors to be operated 30 f r x mpl n e p d p by a crane and a manually, by simple operations, and without remagnet (not shown) outsid the building and dequiring unusually heavy strain. posited in the hopper for delivery to a car or Further objects of the invention in part are upon a weighing scale beneath it. The structure obvious and. in part will appear more in detail includes a nerally rectan l r frame ll, made hereinafter. of suitable structural steel shapes, mounted upon Referring to the drawings, the roof or other support I0. Depending from 1 Fig. 1 represents a front elevation of one form the frame II is the hopper [2, which may be ofof mechanism embodying the invention, the doors any suitable shape in plan, such as round or being shown in closed position; square. It is shown as round and of inverted Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the doors in frusto-conical form, a n a top op g 3 at open position; floor level and having its bottom out ofi on two Fig. 3 is a plan view, corresponding to Fig. l, inclined planes intersecting along a diameter, to certain parts being omitted; form a bottom opening the opposite edge por- -Fig.4is an end elevation; and tions of which, marked [4, are of semi-elliptic Fig. 5 is a detail View of a ratchet device. 3 form, because sections of a cone, and may be gThe present invention contemplates a hopper reinforced in any suitable manner, to provide or receptacle for containing material and havbearing Surfaces 0 Seats fell the Q There ing a bottom normally closed by dump doors, are two doors l5, each made of sheet metal plates all for the purpose of receiving and holding a mounted on a struc'turalsteel frame. They are mass of material intended for delivery for any 5f preferably of rectangular shape in plan view, 9J1 desired purpose, such as material to be charged though the opening which each closes is into a car or bucket and then into a furnace, semi-elliptical, because the rectangular form is cupola or the like. While it may be used in hanmore convenient to' construct and to manipulate.

Patented Mar. 28, 1950 '1 v UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE BOTTOM-DUMP HOPPER Eugene W. Schellcntrager, Shaker Heights, Ohio, assignor to The Atlas Bolt & Screw Company, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application June 9, 1945, Serial No. 598,616

2 Claims. (Cl. 222503) This invention relates to door or bin gate signed for use in the handling of masses of iron mechanism for bottom dump hoppers. or steel, such as pig iron, scrap metal, or the like.

One object of the invention is to provide im- Such material is usually difiicult to handle inproved mechanism of this kind adapted particudumping hoppers of this type by reason of the larly for use with iron pigs, scrap iron or steel, pressure of the material on the doors and the or-other similar material usually difiicult to hantendency to interfere with their opening and to dle with dumping doors, although the invention restrain them in closed position, requiring heavy is useful with any material. effort, even the use of the power mechanism, Another object is to provide improved dumpfor operating the doors, The present invention ing mechanism in which the doors are mounted w pr vi improv d m cha m for h lin mato swing away from instead of across the openterial of this kind, but it nevertheless is capable ings which they close, and also by motion around of operation manually without unduly taxing the centers which not only are considerably above operator, either in release of the doors to perthe doors themselves but also widely separated mit them to move by gravity and weight of the for the two doors, thereby adapting the doors if load to open position, or for returning them to for free and unimpeded motion produced by the closed position.

load when dumping, and materially reducing the he invention may be embodied either in al-abor of closing them. stationary hopper which discharges, for example, Still another object is to provide improved opinto a weighing scale car, or which itself includes crating mechanism for dumping doors of the 2d or forms a p Of Weighing mechanism, e o character described, including simple but ver being dumped into any suitable receptacle, or the eflicient linkag connecting the doors to each hopp itself y form part Of scale mechanism other and to the operating device, and including mounted upon a y which e material is toggle members for releasably locking the doors t spo t d to the desired leeetien, y 0 the dling any kind of material, such as ore or other Each of the two doors is mounted upon two paralgranular substance, it is more particularly de- 55 lel platelike Wings l6 pivoted upon horizontaldirection, by manipulation of reversible ratchet Y mechanism, marked generally 2t, and actuated by hand lever 20a. The ratchet mechanism is more or less conventionally'shown in Fig. 5 because any reversible ratchet mechanism which includes a manually operatable trigger or other control device 2! by means of which its direction of operation may be reversed, is suitable for the purpose. the details thereof forming no part of the present invention.

Shaft I8 extends in a direction-parallel to the axes about which the two doors swing. At each end, said shaft is provided with connections to suitable link mechanism for operating the doors, two such sets of linkage being employed to equalize or balance the stresses. Each mechanism includes oppositely extending arms 22, 23 fast on said shaft and connected respectively by links 24, 25 to the two doors 15, the arrangement being such that when shaft 18 is rotated in one direc tion, the two doors simultaneously move toward open position, shown in Fig. 2, and when said shaft is rotated in the opposite direction, they move toward the closed position shown in Fig. l.

The doors are preferably also provided with suitable counterweight mechanism, such as arms 26 loosely mounted to turn upon the shaft 58 and each connected by a link 21 to one of the supporting wings l6 for one of the doors l5. On each arm 26 is adjustably mounted aheavy counterweight 28. Since the two doors 15 are interconnected by means of the links 24, 25 and the arms 22, 23, the counterweights are effective simultaneously upon both doors. A single arm and counterweight may be employed, although two sets are shown, one at each end of shaft i8, as indicated in Fig. 4.

The apparatus described operates as follows:

Fig. 1 illustrates the parts in door closed position. Link 24 and its operating 22, together, form a toggle connecting shaft l8 to one of the door supporting wings. The knuckle 23 of said toggle, in door closed position, lies just above and beyond dead center, i. e., above a line connccting the center of shaft I8 to the center of the pivotal connection of link 24 to the wing I6. Likewise, arm 23 and link 25 form a toggle, the knuckle of which is also slightly beyond dead center; Further, rotation of shaft [8 in the counterclockwise direction, Fig. 1, beyond ap-- proximately the position of the parts shown, is prevented by said shaft, which lies directly beneath links 25 and forms an obstruction to prevent further downward motion thereof. While the counterweights and their arms are connected to the doors by links 21, these parts do not interfere with some slight motion of the ends of the arms 22 and 23 back and forth across dead center in door closed position, because the ends of said' arms are moving in substantially vertical paths and the closed doors prevent counterciocke wise movement of arms 26. The result is that as the doors reach closed position the outer ends of the arms 22, 23 can be sprung across dead center position to the position shown in Fig. 1,

where the doors are releasably locked in closed position by a toggle effect. The weight of a load upon the doors cannot start door opening movement.

A charge of material, for example, pigs of iron, is dumped into the open end of the hopper from which the cover (not shown) has been removed, until a suflicient charge has thus been collected. When it is desired to dump the load, the operator, having adjusted the ratchet trigger 2| to the proper position, grasps the operating handle 20 and turns shaft l8 in the clockwise direction Fig. 1, to break or start opening the toggle. This requires no more than reasonable effort of an ordinary operator. As soon as the toggle knuckles 29 move downwardly sufficiently to pass beyond dead center, the weight of the load completes door movement to fully open position, as shown in Fig. 2, but if the doors do not completely open of themselves. that motion can be completed by further manual operation of the ratchet.

To close the doors, the operator reverses the operating direction of the ratchet mechanism, grasps the handle 26 and turns the shaft I8 in the opposite direction, counterclockwise in Fig. 2, and by one or more operations of the ratchet lever mechanism returns the doors to their original closed position.

It will be noted that as the doors open and close they do not slide along the surfaces around the edges of the doors against which they bear, but they leave and approach such surfaces breastwise or flatwise, with motion of translation rather than a hinging effect, such as that of the ordinary door. That is because the doors are flat, with their upper surfaces lying in a straight plane, and the pivotal axes around which the doors swing are rather remot from or external to the doors themselves, and in this case lie above the doors and outwardly beyond their centers of gravity when they are closed, and more specifically in vertical alignment with their outer edges when they are closed. Furthermore, the two pivotal axes are widely separated rather than close together. Consequently the doors open by'more or less horizontal motion, although, of course, their outer edges move up while their inner edges move somewhat downwardly. Their centers of gravity, indicated at A, Figs. 1 and 2, swing back and forth from one side to the other, about the pivotal axis. This door motion enables the weight and the movement of the load to materially assist in producing the opening effect.

It will also be noted, by comparison of Figs. 1 and 2, that each door as a whole swings from a position at one side of its pivotal axis to a position on the other side of said axis. The same door motion produces motion of the counterweight from one side tothe other side of the axis about which the counterweight moves, bent always in opposition to the motion of the doors themselves. Thus, the counterweight effect is always balanced against door weight in any door position. By suitable adjustment of the counterweights along their arms, they may be made to almost exactly balance the weight of the doors, so that they are stable and will stay put in prais tically any position to which they may be ad.- justed. That condition, also, is responsible in" large measure for reducing the effort required to move the doors manually, enabling them to to be either broken open to. release a load, or to be moved completely from full open to closed posh tion, by an eifort within the strength of any ordinary operator.

Finally these doors are effective in handling heavy material in large masses, such as scrap iron, pig iron or other metal masses, which ordinarily tend to dig into the doors and prevent them from opening. Not only does the weight of the material assist in producing door opening movement, but also the doors are so mounted that they move, or can be moved, quite readily to a position in which they are entirely out of the path of the material being discharged and thus out of the way of injury. Thus they are strong, durable and not likely to get out of order in serv- Other advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

What I claim is:

1. Apparatus of the character described, comprising a hopper having a bottom opening the edges of which lie in two planes which intersect along a diametrical line and are inclined upwardly and outwardly from the intersection, two straight surfaced doors for said opening which meet edge to edge at the line of intersection when the doors are closed with their surfaces in said planes, pendular arms supporting said doors for swinging motion about parallel axes lying above them and so spaced apart that when the center of each door is directly beneath its pivotal axis the door lies substantially midway between closed and open positions, link and lever mechanism connecting said doors for simultaneous and like movement toward and from each other, a counterweight, an oscillating arm carrying said counterweight, and a link operatively connecting said arm and said doors, said link being of such length and so arranged that as said doors move back and forth across their axes of oscillation the counterweight moves likewise but always in opposition to door motion, whereby the counterweight always tends to stabilize and maintain the doors in any position to which they may be moved and thus minimizes the efiort required to move them in either direction.

2. Apparatus of the character described, comprising a hopper having a bottom opening the edges of which lie in two planes which intersect along a diametrical line, two straight surfaced doors for said opening which meet edge to edge with their upper surfaces in said planes and inclined upwardly and outwardly from said line of intersection when the doors are closed, pendular arms supporting said doors for swinging motion about parallel axes lying above them and so spaced apart that when the doors are closed the outer edge of each lies directly beneath its pivotal axis and when half open its center lies substantially midway between door-closed and dooropen positions, a shaft rotatable upon an axis parallel with but below the axes about which the doors swing, opposed cranks fast on said shaft, links connecting said cranks to said doors for causing simultaneous and like movement of the doors toward and from each other, a counterweight member mounted to swing about the axis of said shaft, and a link operatively connecting said counterweight to said doors, said link being disposed in such manner that the moment of inertia of the counterweight about the shaft axis REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 543,182 Hunt July 23, 1895 737,200 Bowers et a1 Aug. 25, 1903 954,293 Hunt at al Apr. 5, 1910 1,850,589 Le Tourneau Mar. 22, 1932 2,069,739 Fildes et al Feb. 9, 1937 2,167,653 Holbrook et al Aug. 1, 1939 

